Friday, April 25, 2008

There is an in-depth podcast interview with Deborah Gibson on the Stuck in the '80s podcast at tampabay.com. The link to the podcast is on the right-hand side of the page. Or access it through your iTunes.

I won't admit to dancing with a vinyl album cover while Debbie sang "In Your Eyes" to me through the speakers, but those high school years were a big time for media-based crushes.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Following on Rochester's 2007 "The Big Read" project with Dashiell Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON, Chicago is featuring THE LONG GOODBYE, by self-proclaimed Hammett disciple Raymond Chandler in its year-long "One Book, One Chicago" program. THE OUTFIT, a blog of Chicago crime writers, has had themed posts all month, but the one that pertained to me and my life most came yesterday, written by Jim Doherty, about the legacy of Philip Marlowe, including his appearances in film noir. I encourage you to read it if you're a fan of either crime fiction or film noir.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

I don't subscribe to chain letters too much (or memes, in the virtual world), but this one seems to be going around mostly to mystery writers, and I've been tagged by a friend, so I'd hate to let him down...

I first saw this at The Rap Sheet, posted by J. Kingston Pierce, who tagged Dan Wagner over at The Hungry Detective, who tagged me. It's a simple little exercise called "Page 123." What you do is this:

I am currently reading Trunk Music, by Michael Connelly. Page 123 falls in Chapter 2. I haven't actually read that far yet, so this will be as surprising to me as it is to you:

"It was Rhonda.""Rhonda, whatever, never-the-fuck mind. She said you said he was dead."

Ooh, pretty cool. Three short sentences with conflict, vulgarity and a little staccato dialogue. I'm a late-comer to Connelly, but I'm enjoying him. Reading him chronologically, of course. God, I'm so anal.